Hong Kong College of Family Physicians. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.hkcfp.org.hk/

Citation

Hong Kong Practitioner, 2010, v. 32 n. 1, p. 17-26 How to Cite?

Abstract

Objective: To examine the morbidity pattern as presented to primary care doctors in Hong Kong such that service needs can be identified.
Design: Prospective recording of all consecutive patient encounters in one week of each month from July 2007 to June 2008 using standardized forms.
Subjects: All subjects consulting doctors who volunteered to participate in the study.
Main outcome measures: Patients’ demographic data and health problems or diagnoses presented which were coded using the International Classification of Primary care (ICPC-2)
Results: One hundred and nine primary care doctors took part in the study and identified 69,973 health problems / diagnoses. The mean number of health problems per encounter was 1.3±0.3. The respiratory system ranked top (36.2%) in the overall morbidity pattern by system, followed by cardiovascular system (12.8%), digestive system (9.8%) and endocrine system (9.3%). Psychological problems accounted for 2.6% of all problems encountered and were probably under-represented in this study. More than one-third of all health problems encountered were of chronic in nature. The five most common diagnoses were upper respiratory tract infections (26.4%), hypertension (10.0%), diabetes mellitus (4.0%), gastroenteritis (3.9%) and lipid disorder (2.7%). Immunization and health check-up accounted for 1.9% and 1.7% of all reasons for encounter respectively.
Conclusion: Primary care doctors in Hong Kong are consulted for a diversity of health problems and a significant proportion of their workload is in the care of chronic diseases. Thus the challenge lies in enabling and empowering them in chronic disease care as well as mental health care as it appeared to be under-diagnosed in this study. The results are also useful in guiding the content of family medicine curriculum at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Objective: To examine the morbidity pattern as presented to primary care doctors in Hong Kong such that service needs can be identified.
Design: Prospective recording of all consecutive patient encounters in one week of each month from July 2007 to June 2008 using standardized forms.
Subjects: All subjects consulting doctors who volunteered to participate in the study.
Main outcome measures: Patients’ demographic data and health problems or diagnoses presented which were coded using the International Classification of Primary care (ICPC-2)
Results: One hundred and nine primary care doctors took part in the study and identified 69,973 health problems / diagnoses. The mean number of health problems per encounter was 1.3±0.3. The respiratory system ranked top (36.2%) in the overall morbidity pattern by system, followed by cardiovascular system (12.8%), digestive system (9.8%) and endocrine system (9.3%). Psychological problems accounted for 2.6% of all problems encountered and were probably under-represented in this study. More than one-third of all health problems encountered were of chronic in nature. The five most common diagnoses were upper respiratory tract infections (26.4%), hypertension (10.0%), diabetes mellitus (4.0%), gastroenteritis (3.9%) and lipid disorder (2.7%). Immunization and health check-up accounted for 1.9% and 1.7% of all reasons for encounter respectively.
Conclusion: Primary care doctors in Hong Kong are consulted for a diversity of health problems and a significant proportion of their workload is in the care of chronic diseases. Thus the challenge lies in enabling and empowering them in chronic disease care as well as mental health care as it appeared to be under-diagnosed in this study. The results are also useful in guiding the content of family medicine curriculum at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.